I am traveling a lot these, mostly for work and often in business. But, back in the day, when I first signed up for my first Star Alliance frequent flyer program, I didn't understand how the alliance or system worked, and just randomly enrolled with a carrier that I happened to be flying on, which happened to be the Ethiopian Airlines ShebaMiles. Fast forward 3 years later, and I now have Gold status.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this hasn't worked out so well for me... between the technical issues and lack of ability to book award flights/upgrades online, I'm not really able to use the points. Because I fly business often enough, I am thinking of trying to "switch" to another Star Alliance carrier this year and basically "re-earn" Gold Status.
Two questions:
1) Is this reasonable/feasible/logical? I am thinking that I will try to get status on another carrier when I am flying business for my work... but am worried that I could end up losing status with ET and not gaining new Gold Level status by the end of the year...
2) And, if I do decide to switch, which Star Alliance carrier should I switch to? Which one is "best"? Most important key features I would be looking for is ability to use points to book/upgrade using rewards easily (and ideally the most flexibility in booking rewards with Star Alliance partners, since I switch carriers quite often). Usually I am looking to use my points to upgrade purchased economy class tickets. I fly the most between (and within) Africa, Europe, North America, and Middle East (roughly in that order). I was thinking Turkish?
I tried asking Turkish to status match for me, but they wouldn't
Thank you soooo much in advance for any suggestions, or even a link to something relevant (have tried searching but nothing much as turned up). I don't want to do something stupid and lose status altogether, but don't know how to recover from original bad decision to go with Ethiopian Airlines for Gold Status!
Nina